Warning to ImportERA: Do NOT give Play Asia your business

[evilromero]

no company is worth emotion. either loyalty or boycotting. I buy stuff from Hobby Lobby and Chic-fil-a despite strong feelings against religion, order stuff from Amazon and Walmart on occasion even though both are about the worst thing for the retail industry in the entire world, etc.

Making decisions on where to purchase things based on ethics and morality is like basing a car purchase first and foremost on color even ahead of brand, style, MPG, etc. There are a hundred better qualifications to what you buy and where you buy it from than "feelings" for or against the ethics of something.

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Remind me of the time Jeff Bezos made a scene on Twitter demonstrating such behavior. And let's be honest, your bridging a completely different issue on the impact of Amazon/Walmart's business in the retail environment with a company's representative explicitly demonstrating or expressing toxic attitudes towards customers.

Regarding your examples of Hobby Lobby/CF, you do have a choice to shop elsewhere. It's just inconvenient for you for a variety of reasons.

Concerning the topic at hand, I suppose you could say you prefer to shop at PA due to their selection of products but still acknowledge the behavior of the company's representative. Personally, there isn't anything on their website that I couldn't obtain through some other means.

 

[Mr. Mug]

Concerning the topic at hand, I suppose you could say you prefer to shop at PA due to their selection of products but still acknowledge the behavior of the company's representative. Personally, there isn't anything on their website that I couldn't obtain through some other means.

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They also tend to be kinda expensive and apparently have pretty shitty customer service (I've had no problems myself while I was still buying from them but that was years ago). Amazon.co.jp and probably cdjapan are much better for japanese stuff (also Amiami but I never used them myself). I'm not sure what the best place to get SEA releases is however. But I doubt it's play-asia, maybe yesasia?

So even if you couldn't care less about their gamergame shit I'd not recommend buying from them. They're just too expensive. (I do care but i've also not bought from them in years so not sure my boycot means much of anything).

 

[borghe]

Remind me of the time Jeff Bezos made a scene on Twitter demonstrating such behavior. And let's be honest, your bridging a completely different issue on the impact of Amazon/Walmart's business in the retail environment with a company's representative explicitly demonstrating or expressing toxic attitudes towards customers.

Regarding your examples of Hobby Lobby/CF, you do have a choice to shop elsewhere. It's just inconvenient for you for a variety of reasons.

Concerning the topic at hand, I suppose you could say you prefer to shop at PA due to their selection of products but still acknowledge the behavior of the company's representative. Personally, there isn't anything on their website that I couldn't obtain through some other means.

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I'm not bridging anything.. basing your shopping preferences on emotion response always comes down to "I'm ok with this but not ok with that." If you want to do that.. more power to you. My point (and response) was mostly toward the dog whistle comments.

Convenient? Sure. Price? Sure. Selection? Sure. These are fine objective reasons to decide to shop somewhere (or buy something) over somewhere (or something) else. "I don't like what this company is doing so I'm not going to shop there." Ok, no problem. But don't assume that because the people who don't choose as you do are in favor of the thing you don't like. ALSO one can't assume that because someone still shops there (Wherever) that they condone or support said thing.. Again, shopping is a BEVY of decisions in order of importance to any given individual. Just because the moral implications of companies don't rate as high as other factors to someone doesn't signal preference or what they condone.

 

[chrominance]

I interviewed Play Asia the last time this happened with their DOA-X tweet. That tweet ended up nearly doubling their follower count and significantly increasing their sales.

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This should put paid to the notion that this is just some outspoken employee that shouldn't reflect on the company as a whole. This is literally making them money, so of course they're embracing it.

That's fine. There are plenty of other places to buy import games from that don't send harassment mobs after their customers and don't support regressive, hateful movements. I can and will continue to buy from them instead of Play-Asia. Simple.

 

[DR2K]

No one was even calling for DOAX3 not to release. Team Ninja didn't want to deal with releasing a shitty game to hurt their brand in the West. It really is a cheap, quick and easy cash in.

Play Asia won't be getting my business.

 

[Horror]

I'm not bridging anything.. basing your shopping preferences on emotion response always comes down to "I'm ok with this but not ok with that." If you want to do that.. more power to you. My point (and response) was mostly toward the dog whistle comments.

Convenient? Sure. Price? Sure. Selection? Sure. These are fine objective reasons to decide to shop somewhere (or buy something) over somewhere (or something) else. "I don't like what this company is doing so I'm not going to shop there." Ok, no problem. But don't assume that because the people who don't choose as you do are in favor of the thing you don't like. ALSO one can't assume that because someone still shops there (Wherever) that they condone or support said thing.. Again, shopping is a BEVY of decisions in order of importance to any given individual. Just because the moral implications of companies don't rate as high as other factors to someone doesn't signal preference or what they condone.

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That's not what you had said.

You had suggestively marginalized those individuals who do make their purchase decisions on factors other than the economic ones you've listed, and now you're backpedaling by saying those that do..."Hey, more power to them. But they shouldn't expect others to follow suit."

 

[DR2K]

Double post

 

[hibikase]

Funny thing about Play Asia is so many people think it's the only place to import. It's especially silly for importing Japanese versions because PA is a Hong Kong based company, so by getting Japanese versions there you're basically double-importing. Like, just use Japanese import shops like AmiAmi instead...

 

[stinkyguy666]

They don't care, or it has actually helped their sales. During the whole DOAX3 thing they had an AMA on 8chan which is pretty fucked. Total GG pandering. Apparently they even had ads on there, for a while?

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wow that's really bad. All this time I thought this was just some sort of out of control rogue social media guy.

 

[Jigu]

This is such bullshit.

Not that my website is active at the moment, but it had referrals to Play-Asia.

I'm removing them right now and withdrawing whatever cents I've got there - never again.

 

[RealTravisty]

Ehh.

Last time I bought from Play-Asia was when Sengoku Basara 4 was first released. Buying from them as a Canadian is a pain, so this isn't a huge loss for me. I found a store on Ebay that works out for me anyway.

 

[Mesoian]

Play-Asia still going the "those scary women are scary huh? stick with us and we'll give you all the nonthreatening empty, vapid sexualization you need to keep you going".

Shit was lame when they did it with DOAX3, it's lame now. Fuck these cats.

 

[Raptomex]

I had no idea about their politics until this thread. I haven't bought from them in years, though.

I'm not bridging anything.. basing your shopping preferences on emotion response always comes down to "I'm ok with this but not ok with that." If you want to do that.. more power to you. My point (and response) was mostly toward the dog whistle comments.

Convenient? Sure. Price? Sure. Selection? Sure. These are fine objective reasons to decide to shop somewhere (or buy something) over somewhere (or something) else. "I don't like what this company is doing so I'm not going to shop there." Ok, no problem. But don't assume that because the people who don't choose as you do are in favor of the thing you don't like. ALSO one can't assume that because someone still shops there (Wherever) that they condone or support said thing.. Again, shopping is a BEVY of decisions in order of importance to any given individual. Just because the moral implications of companies don't rate as high as other factors to someone doesn't signal preference or what they condone.

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I agree with this.

 

[CannonFodder52]

Meh, I'm not on Twitter and don't care overall but I wish I could find that tweet. A certain mod from a certain gaming forum featured in that list.

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I presume you're talking about a list of progressives or feminists that had done deviant, vile, hypocritical acts. I've seen mombot post something similar.

I disagree heavily with the implication asserted by such lists. There are harassers, paedophiles, bad actors and so on in every group of people. The problem is society, masculinity, men and many other factors.The problem is not that male feminists are innately hypocrites and perverts. That's just some shitty far right propaganda, with the sole purpose of casting a wide net on progressives.

If you are referring to a list of another nature, then disregard this post.

 

[Deleted member 26535]

I will not stop to buy in Play-Asia because of this.

 

[borghe]

That's not what you had said.

You had suggestively marginalized those individuals who do make their purchase decisions on factors other than the economic ones you've listed, and now you're backpedaling by saying those that do..."Hey, more power to them. But they shouldn't expect others to follow suit."

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Umm.. no... as with everything people don't like they forget that every post on the internet effectively has a big old "IMHO" attached to it.. my only "back pedal" was lack of clarifying that the posts that prompted my original post where the ones claiming people who continued to shop at a place that they morally avoided (like PA) were in fact just like PA (dog whistle bullshit)

 

[Mesoian]

I buy from them for exclusives, and anime stuff for my kids. Two items in two years. /shrugs


I don't even know what it is lol.

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Allow me to educate

https://www./threads/gamergate-thread-2-its-about-feminism-in-games-journalism.918685/post-135783202

I should repost this here somewhere so I don't have to link back to gaf.

 

[MotionBlue]

Nah, Play-Asia has been good for me. This is like the DOA thing all over again. I don't know who Robertson even is.

 

[Mesoian]

Nah, Play-Asia has been good for me. This is like the DOA thing all over again. I don't know who Robertson even is.

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It is EXACTLY the DOA thing all over again. They think they're cute, they ain't.

 

[Scar]

So where am i supposed to go for all my super robot wars english translated games now?

 

[RecRoulette]

I haven't used PlayAsia in awhile, but the last incident they had made sure I wasn't going to use them again. I get games/books/cds from Amazon Japan and toys and other merch from Amiami, codes from....wherever actually has them in stock.

It's not 2009, there are alternatives out there.

 

[Doof]

Allow me to educate

https://www./threads/gamergate-thread-2-its-about-feminism-in-games-journalism.918685/post-135783202

I should repost this here somewhere so I don't have to link back to gaf.

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Hey, thanks for this! I can see it coming in handy.

 

[Horror]

Umm.. no... as with everything people don't like they forget that every post on the internet effectively has a big old "IMHO" attached to it.. my only "back pedal" was lack of clarifying that the posts that prompted my original post where the ones claiming people who continued to shop at a place that they morally avoided (like PA) were in fact just like PA (dog whistle bullshit)

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"Ummm...no?" Are we still in grade school?

Read your dumb-ass reply from earlier. You've made it very clear that you felt there was no rational reason to boycott a company, as if you're someone who operates ultimately on some higher cloud of economic and pragmatic consciousness when in truth you're merely subscribing to the same conventional brand of apathy routinely exercised by the lazy and weak-willed. Nothing new under the sun there. I've boycotted and facilitated boycotts against organizations and local companies for those "ethic" and "moral" reason you've demonstrated a dismissive attitude towards. Personally, I would love for you to articulate to my group the "hundred of better qualifications" deemed more appropriate when determining what products to buy.

 

[Scythesurge]

Just had an issue with an order I placed in November unrelated to all of this, so this is just icing on the cake for me to stop being a PA customer.

 

[Bhonar]

"Ummm...no?" Are we still in grade school?

Read your dumb-ass reply from earlier. You've made it very clear that you felt there was no rational reason to boycott a company, as if you're someone who operates ultimately on some higher cloud of economic and pragmatic consciousness when in truth you're merely subscribing to the same conventional brand of apathy routinely exercised by the lazy and weak-willed. Nothing new under the sun there. I've boycotted and facilitated boycotts against organizations and local companies for those "ethic" and "moral" reason you've demonstrated a dismissive attitude towards. Personally, I would love for you to articulate to my group the "hundred of better qualifications" deemed more appropriate when determining what products to buy.

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Who the fuck are you to judge someone else, if you're criticizing them by judging others to begin with?

Yes, I do think that borghe was marginalizing other people's decisions in boycotting Play-Asia. But then you come right back and call other people lazy & weak-willed.

You're no better than borghe or people like me.

Every person in the world should be mandated to be political boycotters and activists, otherwise they're all lazy & weak-willed? That's laughable.

That's the problem with people like you -- it's not that you want to boycott or be activists, that's fine and I have no problem with that. The problem is you take it another step with a high-horse and then negatively JUDGE down on others for not being exactly like you. That's ridiculous, lol. You think every person in the world should be the exact same?

 

[Deleted member 123]

Let's not talk about them again. Never again.

I was going to let my friends buy an account from Play Asia, but now that I know the truth, I will inform them not to. Thanks for the headsup!

 

[Deleted member 10428]

I always liked yesasia better as they had free shipping.

 

[Boiled Goose]

What does that have to do with my reply to Zelas that you are not forced to listen to Play-Asia's rant, if you don't want to?

It's not like this is plastered everywhere in the general world. The only way I would have saw it is here on ERA. I've never had a Twitter account.

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You said you don't like politics in your games. What you find apolitical might be very political to others.

 

[OmegaX]

Play-Asia is the only store I know of that ships to my country with reasonable prices. Sorry OP, but the only thing that would get me to stop giving them business is if they started messing up my orders.
Honestly, the whole DOA fiasco was just dumb. People were getting up in arms about some anime titty game like it was the devil. Why can't people just avoid Twitter drama?

 

[borghe]

Who the fuck are you to judge someone else, if you're criticizing them by judging others to begin with?

Yes, I do think that borghe was marginalizing other people's decisions in boycotting Play-Asia. But then you come right back and call other people lazy & weak-willed.

You're no better than borghe or people like me.

Every person in the world should be mandated to be political boycotters and activists, otherwise they're all lazy & weak-willed? That's laughable.

That's the problem with people like you -- it's not that you want to boycott or be activists, that's fine and I have no problem with that. The problem is you take it another step with a high-horse and then negatively JUDGE down on others for not being exactly like you. That's ridiculous, lol. You think every person in the world should be the exact same?

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As I mentioned earlier, I think it's ridiculous that every post needs to be qualified with "IMHO" these days, and my marginalization was directed (though I didn't state it) toward people such as this clown, stating his moral superiority.

and yes, I find it hilarious that he posts

You had suggestively marginalized those individuals who do make their purchase decisions on factors other than the economic ones you've listed

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and then directly follows it up with

when in truth you're merely subscribing to the same conventional brand of apathy routinely exercised by the lazy and weak-willed.

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Personally, I would love for you to articulate to my group the "hundred of better qualifications" deemed more appropriate when determining what products to buy.

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Price
Selection
Convenience
Post-purchase support

 

[Horror]

That's the problem with people like you -- it's not that you want to boycott or be activists, that's fine and I have no problem with that. The problem is you take it another step with a high-horse and then negatively JUDGE down on others for not being exactly like you. That's ridiculous, lol. You think every person in the world should be the exact same?

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Depends on what they're after.

If they want nothing or don't care, by all means do nothing. If they're offended/angry, then they should be active about it. And the people in the latter group are entitled to judge those that feel the exact same way they do but are too passive to act.

 

[WildEagle18]

Ehh.

Last time I bought from Play-Asia was when Sengoku Basara 4 was first released. Buying from them as a Canadian is a pain, so this isn't a huge loss for me. I found a store on Ebay that works out for me anyway.

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Care to share? I want to stop using Play-asia but I didn't have much choice as a Canadian besides the overprice import store near Pacific Mall lol.

 

[Bhonar]

You said you don't like politics in your games. What you find apolitical might be very political to others.

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Yeah that was a different side subject. I'll create a different thread for that, since I've been told by others to not continue it here

 

[borghe]

Depends on what they're after.

If they want nothing or don't care, by all means do nothing. If they're offended/angry, then they should be active about it. And the people in the latter group are entitled to judge those that feel the exact same way they do but are too passive to act.

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Says who!!? You!? Fuck the right off.

 

[Deleted member 6730]

no company is worth emotion. either loyalty or boycotting. I buy stuff from Hobby Lobby and Chic-fil-a despite strong feelings against religion, order stuff from Amazon and Walmart on occasion even though both are about the worst thing for the retail industry in the entire world, etc.

Making decisions on where to purchase things based on ethics and morality is like basing a car purchase first and foremost on color even ahead of brand, style, MPG, etc. There are a hundred better qualifications to what you buy and where you buy it from than "feelings" for or against the ethics of something.

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This logic is incredibly dumb because you're throwing money at terrible people who support terrible things. Money you give to Chic-fil-a would go to anti-gay organizations and Hobby Lobby may or may not have bought ancient artifacts from Isis.

 

[Mochi]

Yikes. Thanks for this thread. Won't purchase there again.

Distanced myself from Ami ami, not many places left

 

[Horror]

As I mentioned earlier, I think it's ridiculous that every post needs to be qualified with "IMHO" these days, and my marginalization was directed (though I didn't state it) toward people such as this clown, stating his moral superiority.

and yes, I find it hilarious that he posts



and then directly follows it up with




Price
Selection
Convenience
Post-purchase support

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For future reference you can reply directly to me.

No need to hug shoulders and tag-team with the first guy to cosign your argument. More passive shit.

 

[Bhonar]

Depends on what they're after.

If they want nothing or don't care, by all means do nothing. If they're offended/angry, then they should be active about it. And the people in the latter group are entitled to judge those that feel the exact same way they do but are too passive to act.

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Ok then that's fine, and we somewhat agree then.

I'm definitely part of the "I don't care" group. If something does not personally affect me only, then I don't care.

But yeah, if someone were to hate Trump for example but didn't end up taking the time to vote, then I can see your point about those people.

 

[borghe]

For future reference you can reply directly to me.

No need to hug shoulders and tag-team with the first guy to cosign your argument. More passive shit.

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Nothing passive. I've responded plenty to your ivory tower shtick. Standing for a cause and condescending moral high grounds are not mutually exclusive, but you've sure played both hand in hand.

You want to sit back and throw rocks at people who disagree with you, and your best excuse is because "I say so?"

Your entire limited scope is based around "I don't know what to do with people who think other than I do so I am just going to berate and belittle them to make me feel better about myself." You are literally every bit as bad as an abortion protestor and Westboro Baptist. How fucking rich is that. Same tactics, different skin/cause. Grow up.

 

[Valcrist]

Play Asia doesn't get many exclusives, right? Just DOAX3? I think I bought No Heroes Allowed VR from them because that was the only place I could find an English physical copy. I hate digital and avoid it whenever I can. Is there another site that I can use?

 

[cosmicblizzard]

For reference, here is Liam's original tweet back to PA:

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Yeah, Robertson is the aggressor here. If it was some no-name account in the triple digits, then yeah firing back would be inappropriate. Like, this is the timeline of events here:

Robertson (15k followers): "Look at these idiots"

PA (50k followers): "We doing this again?"

Robertson "Harassment!"

PA are not in control of their followers. They ultimately have to be responsible for their own actions. Having a sense of responsibility for having the unwanted ability to incite is admirable, but not required in the clusterfuck that is social media.


That being said, it's incredibly stupid that a retailer would want to get involved in this in any way, and the original response to Mombot is dumb. Like, you guys are selling imports, you're not a political or journalistic entity. Relax and get new social media people.

And yet:

I interviewed Play Asia the last time this happened with their DOA-X tweet. That tweet ended up nearly doubling their follower count and significantly increasing their sales.

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This on the other hand makes things a bit murkier. While I don't think "there's no such thing as bad press" can be an absolute statement, controversy does generate visibility, which generates business.

If this kind of belligerent behavior is legitimately doing extremely well for them, then this isn't just a disgruntled employee but actually a smart endeavor that is supported by the free market.

 

[stupei]

Liam Robertson has 15000 followers and quote-tweeted them first, should we be boycotting him too?

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I didn't know people had bought into the idea that companies are people so thoroughly that they actually think these two things are equivalent.

 

[RealTravisty]

Care to share? I want to stop using Play-asia but I didn't have much choice as a Canadian besides the overprice import store near Pacific Mall lol.

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Play-Asia annoys me because of their price AND the customs price that comes along with it. It really adds up. It depends on what you want to import and what language it's in, but Ebay and Nin-Nin have been much better experiences for me.

I know that store you're talking about, and I'm absolutely amazed at the fact that they're still in business!

 

[Horror]

Nothing passive. I've responded plenty to your ivory tower shtick. Standing for a cause and condescending moral high grounds are not mutually exclusive, but you've sure played both hand in hand.

You want to sit back and throw rocks at people who disagree with you, and your best excuse is because "I say so?"

Your entire limited scope is based around "I don't know what to do with people who think other than I do so I am just going to berate and belittle them to make me feel better about myself." You are literally every bit as bad as an abortion protestor and Westboro Baptist. How fucking rich is that. Same tactics, different skin/cause. Grow up.

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I've expressed my reasons more elaborately than that, but I understand you're flailing here so I won't take your crude paraphrasing personally. You can also have the last word on this since I think that's something that is important to you.

 

[Remo Williams]

I think I've only had positive experiences with PA so far, including some painless refunds. Someone's political views don't factor into any of my buyer-seller relationships (nor any other relationships, for that matter - some of my good friends and even my fiancee don't share many of my views, but I think maintaining dialogue with them is healthy), so I'm afraid I'll keep doing business with them whenever it makes sense for me. But thanks for the heads-up, that's definitely appreciated.

 

[Deleted member 6730]

Yeah, Robertson is the aggressor here. If it was some no-name account in the triple digits, then yeah firing back would be inappropriate. Like, this is the timeline of events here:

Robertson (15k followers): "Look at these idiots"

PA (50k followers): "We doing this again?"

Robertson "Harassment!"

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...
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.
You don't know what harassment is. Don't you.

 

[MrSaturn99]

Welp, they've lost my business.

I am never not amazed at how self-defeating of an insult "SJW" is.

 

[IrishNinja]

yeah, been done with them since they let their gg flag fly with DOA, amiami works for me
speaking of, really wishing i'dve copped that majima figure a while back now

In 2015 during the whole DOAX3 thing, Play-Asia was even retweeting and signal boosting harassment tweets.

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oh wow, i missed this at the time - yeah, fuck them

PA are not in control of their followers. They ultimately have to be responsible for their own actions. Having a sense of responsibility for having the unwanted ability to incite is admirable, but not required in the clusterfuck that is social media.

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this isn't a great stance to take either - a lot of gg harassment came from people who clearly set their fanbase on people and "couldn't be held responsible" for their actions. it was a pretty clear pattern, and no, elements of the "free market" favoring it didn't make it okay either.

Welp, they've lost my business.

I am never not amazed at how self-defeating of an insult "SJW" is.

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right? it's only more hilarious when used in terms of comics, a format literally build around characters & social justice

 

[cosmicblizzard]

...
...
.
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You don't know what harassment is. Don't you.

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I don't view fans of an entity harassing someone as analogues to the entity itself harassing them unless that's actually spelled out by the entity itself. The people harassing Robertson need to be reported and PA should have enough sense to say "please don't harass this guy" if for nothing else than to give them an easy out, but people are ultimately individuals and thus responsible for their own actions.

 

[OmegaX]

Play-Asia annoys me because of their price AND the customs price that comes along with it. It really adds up. It depends on what you want to import and what language it's in, but Ebay and Nin-Nin have been much better experiences for me.

I know that store you're talking about, and I'm absolutely amazed at the fact that they're still in business!

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It may be different for each country. I've ordered from PA tons of times and I've never paid customs because in my country you can import almost anything that's not restricted without paying customs as long as the total price is under $200.
Also, their cheapest type of shipping had tracking number and it only costed me $5 for a single amiibo or game. Sometimes they even have promos with free international shipping.